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Biographies on whitney houston
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The Voice
During an English class we were asked to do a research project about an influential, American citizen who has changed the American culture in some way. It was hard figuring out who I would write my paper about, because there are so many different people that have contributed to the American culture in some way. Then I was thinking about big pop stars that have done something important in their lives, and I thought about the unforgettable Whitney Houston. Finally, I decided to do my project on her to learn about Whitney's life, what she has done, and why is she influential to the American culture.
Whitney was born August 9, 1963 in New Jersey. She comes from an afro family; her parents were Cissy Houston and John Russell Houston, and Aretha Flanking was her godmother (Hampton 1). She started singing "in her family's church choir" (Wenner 1). Whitney performed "in her mother's nightclub act" (Wenner 1). The star attended a Catholic high school and while there she "signed with a modeling agency and posed for magazines including Glamour and Vogue" (Wenner 1). Houston was released in 1985 and was a big hit. From there new singles came, duets with great artists, and even recorded the theme song for the Summer Olympics in
1988. She started her acting career on the movie The Bodyguard which was a big hit. In 1992 she married Bobby Brown and had their first child Bobbi Kristina in 1993. (Wenner 1).
Houston's career just kept growing, she won an Oscar singing a duet with Mariah Carey. "Houston moved to the small screen in 1997, producing and playing the Fairy Godmother to Brandy's Cinderella in a Wonderful World of Disney remake of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" says Jann S. Wenner. She now had a famous model...
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...ingers like Beyoncé and Hudson, who are able to move successfully from music to movies in the same way Houston did, owe a debt to Whitney. “It’s fairly rare historically for someone who is successful in one arena to get accepted by critics and the public in another,” said Recording Academy CEO/President Neil Portnow. Whitney proved that "America is the land of opportunity" (Kaufman 1). "You can do anything you put your heart and mind to,” Portnow said of Houston’s legacy. (Kaufman 1).
In brief, this paper was based on Whitney Houston's life, what she did, and why was she so influential to American culture. Whitney was a great pop star that had a great talent and throughout her career she won many awards. She is an example to many stars, and she proved
that this really is the land of opportunities and that you can reach your goals if you put your heart into it.
Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. Selena grew up understanding Spanish, but English was her first language. At the age of five Selena saw her brother learning to play the guitar and became jealous of the attention he was getting. She picked up a songbook and began to sing. Her family quickly turned their attention to her strong and beautiful voice. In the first grade Selena excelled at a game called Jump the Brook, in which two ropes are placed side by side and each kid takes a turn jumping across.1 In middle school Selena was in honors classes and made A’s and B’s. Selena used her allowance to put clothes on layaway. As a teenager, Selena hung all of her awards on the wall next to the staircase in her family’s house. As an adult, Selena was very involved with kids. She was a spokeswoman for the D.A.R.E. Program.
To summarize Nina Simone and how important she was, many people would describe her as a musical genius, a Black Power icon, and even some
To commerate Black History Month, I have decided to do reasearch on an exceptionally talented musician Ella Fitzgerald. She was essentially the Aretha Franklin of the Jazz Age. She was an incredibly talented jazz singer who was considered the best by almost everyone. The reason she’s been chosen as today’s Black History Month is because she holds the distinction of being the first Grammy Award Winner who was both Black and female. Ella Fitzgerald had an everlasting impact on, not only how jazz music sounded, but also who performed it. When looking at a compulsive life as Ella’s, I was inspired by the huge impact she brought throught out music; especially jazz.
Folklores are stories that have been through many time periods. Folklore include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends are traditional tales handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis. Myths are ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. Fairy Tales are fantasy tales with legendary being and creators.
Alicia Keys was born in 1981, in New York. From the young age of 7 years old, she began piano lessons. After graduating from the Professional Performance Arts School, she signed a deal with Clive Davis, the head of Arista Records. Davis left Arista to start J Records and Alicia Keys followed. Her album Songs in A Minor released in 2001, and went platinum five times over and earned her five Grammys. She followed up with hit albums such as The Diary of Alicia Keys released in 2003, As I Am in 2007 and Girl on Fire in 2009, all of which won the her Grammys.
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans. First is about the effect of slave music on American history and African American music. The slave music’s
In 1983, Houston was signed to Arista Records and music executive, Clive Davis, became her mentor and helped launch her successful career. Whitney Houston was known as the innocent, girl-next-door, who promoted positivity and love within her professional career. Houston's good-girl image was shattered, when she married R&B bad boy, Bobby Brown, in 1992. Towards the late 90's, it was rumored that she was using drugs and she looked very thin. In 2006, Houston divorced Bobby Brown and entered into rehab, to end her addiction to cocaine and other drugs.
In our time, we had many people who impacted our society. For example, Rosa Parks. She fought for the civil rights of black people. Two heroes who really impacted our society was Frederick Douglass and Malala Yousafzai. Even though from different time periods, both individuals were heroes to people.
Lena Horne was born on June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, New York. Her parents were Teddy and Edna Scottron Horne. After her father left her at the age of two in order to pursue his gambling career; her mother leaving soon after that to pursue her acting career; she went to live with her grandparents. Through her grandparents influence she became involved with organizations like the NAACP, at an early age.
Singer/actress Lena Horne's primary occupation was nightclub entertaining, a profession she pursued successfully around the world for more than 60 years, from the 1930s to the 1990s. In conjunction with her club work, she also maintained a recording career that stretched from 1936 to 2000 and brought her three Grammys, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989; she appeared in 16 feature films and several shorts between 1938 and 1978; she performed occasionally on Broadway, including in her own Tony-winning one-woman show, Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music in 1981-1982; and she sang and acted on radio and television. Adding to the challenge of maintaining such a career was her position as an African-American facing discrimination personally and in her profession during a period of enormous social change in the U.S. Her first job in the 1930s was at the Cotton Club, where blacks could perform, but not be admitted as customers; by 1969, when she acted in the film Death of a Gunfighter, her character's marriage to a white man went unremarked in the script. Horne herself was a pivotal figure in the changing attitudes about race in the 20th century; her middle-class upbringing and musical training predisposed her to the popular music of her day, rather than the blues and jazz genres more commonly associated with African-Americans, and her photogenic looks were sufficiently close to Caucasian that frequently she was encouraged to try to "pass" for white, something she consistently refused to do. But her position in the middle of a social struggle enabled her to become a leader in that struggle, speaking out in favor of racial integration and raising money for civil rights causes. By the end of the century, she could look back at a life that was never short on conflict, but that could be seen ultimately as a triumph.
Most of us know Miss Diana Ross, an African American performer. Her acting and singing career is what lead her to fame. She goes by the nickname of Miss Ross. Here is something you may not know, her birth name is Diane Ernestine Earle Ross. However her birth certificate says Diana. She was born and raised here in Detroit, Michigan. Where most babies in Detroit are delivered so was she, Hutzel Women’s Hospital. On March 26, 1944 a star entered the city with much more potential than anyone would have ever expected. She lived near the North End area of Detroit (woodward) and later moved to the Brewster projects. Miss Diana Ross attended a high school all Detroit citizens are familiar with, Cass Technical HS. She discovered her talent at a very young age as she began to sing in the choir at church. It was shortly after this when her career started to grow.
things that were going on in the world unlike rappers in this generation. He will forever be remembered. Whitney Houston was one of the biggest female pop stars of all time. She was born August 9, 1963 and she passed away February 11, 2012. Her most famous song is called “I Will Always Love You.” It’s also written on her grave. Her death was also tragic. She was...
Whitney Houston’s career truly took off in the mid-1980s after releasing her second album, Whitney, which includes her smash hit I Wanna Dance With Somebody. I Wanna Dance With Somebody is such an upbeat tune that includes a heavily edited and enhanced pop melodic line, synthesizers, and the notorious percussion and keyboard tease that begins the tune. Whitney Houston definitely brings this to life through her outstanding vocals that fully showcases her range, elastic vibrato, and precise musical abilities. Houston is most known for her voice that, in my opinion, is still considered extremely iconic and powerful. Houston’s chart-topping single also showcased the type of music that the United States enjoyed and cherished in the late 1980s. This song brings to the surface the anticipation, joy, and free-spirit that the 1980s culture presented to its people, and this hit ties in the importance of music, love, and dancing that stem from the core of Whitney’s pop-hit lyrics. The style of music portrayed in the 1980s consisted of many drum machines, synth-based styles of music, and electronic programming that twisted and manipulated the music into its reputable popular techno/rock characteristics. These characteristics are also seen in Gloria Estefan’s hit, Betcha Say That. Betcha Say That and I Wanna Dance With Somebody explicitly shows how popular energetic anthems were to the musical audience being catered back
Hip hop has permeated popular culture in an unprecedented fashion. Because of its crossover appeal, it is a great unifier of diverse populations. Although created by black youth on the streets, hip hop's influence has become well received by a number of different races in this country. A large number of the rap and hip hop audience is non-black. It has gone from the fringes, to the suburbs, and into the corporate boardrooms. Because it has become the fastest growing music genre in the U.S., companies and corporate giants have used its appeal to capitalize on it. Although critics of rap music and hip hop seem to be fixated on the messages of sex, violence, and harsh language, this genre offers a new paradigm of what can be (Lewis, 1998.) The potential of this art form to mend ethnic relations is substantial. Hip hop has challenged the system in ways that have unified individuals across a rich ethnic spectrum. This art form was once considered a fad has kept going strong for more than three decades. Generations consisting of Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians have grown up immersed in hip-hop. Hip hop represents a realignment of America?s cultural aesthetics. Rap songs deliver a message, again and again, to keep it real. It has influenced young people of all races to search for excitement, artistic fulfillment, and a sense of identity by exploring the black underclass (Foreman, 2002). Though it is music, many people do not realize that it is much more than that. Hip hop is a form of art and culture, style, and language, and extension of commerce, and for many, a natural means of living. The purpose of this paper is to examine hip hop and its effect on American culture. Different aspects of hip hop will also be examined to shed some light that helps readers to what hip hop actually is. In order to see hip hop as a cultural influence we need to take a look at its history.
Without a doubt there is one major performer that certainly stands out within our pop culture world. The name of this very famous American icon is, Dolly Parton. Dolly has surpassed any rags to riches story that ever lived. She has touched the lives of so many individuals over many decades through her many talents. Dolly started her career at a very young age and continued fulfilling her life endeavors through country music, pop music, and even acting. This American icon didn’t stop with just her talents, she also gave back to our society through charity, fundraising, and establishing her own theme park. Dolly Parton was brought up in a very poor family, however through much dedication she became the famous icon everyone idolized today.